Midquel Drabbles
by Professor Muscovite
Summary: largely standalone ficlets/drabbles, often Cedfia centric (platonic/fluffy friend fic) based on moments that could have happened in the middle of episode plots. Since it's working as much within show canon as I can (with maybe a few artistic liberties) I can't see why this would ever venture into T-rating territory.
1. Cedric's Apprentice

Sofia took a deep breath before opening the doors to her closet, which was, itself, larger than the room she and her mom had shared only a few weeks - wait, had it already been a month? - before.

To be honest, it was daunting, not that Sofia knew that particular word at the ripe old age of eight. Still, she powered through the apprehension and began her search through the myriad clothes here. Nearly everything was purple. Word had been sent to the castle tailors of her measurements, some general tendencies, and her favorite color before she arrived, so while all of these would fit, she hadn't seen most of them before. Mostly she just wore the same dress each day, the first one she'd found in here when she first arrived.

But she was going to change that, here and now. "Clover, Robin, Mia, Whatnot?" Sofia's animal friends came through the door with her, but acknowledging each by name felt like a nice thing to do. "Can you guys help me find something to go with this hat?" Sofia took the sparkly purple pointed hat off her head and showed it to her friends. "Mister Ceedric says I can be his apprentice! But I've gotta find something else to wear, there's no way _this_ poofy thing -" Sofia gestured down to her usual lavender dress, " - is any good to have with all his dust and his mess I'm gonna help clean up. Or his potions! If we can find a real wizardy robe, that would be cool. Show I'm serious about being a sorcerer's apprentice and all, yeah?"

It took a while, but they did actually find a dressing gown that was almost the right color of purple. It wasn't quite perfect, if you looked really closely, and its hems were a slightly lighter shade that wasn't present on the hat, but it was a darn close match.

...But it still didn't look quite right. A few words with Clover and the birds, and some encouraging chittering from Whatnot, and Sofia was about to do another first for the castle: ring the bellpull to summon a servant to her room.

With somewhat alarming speed, Violet appeared in Sofia's doorway. "Yea, miss? Wha' c'n I do for you?"

Sofia let go of the rope like it was covered in spiders when she heard Violet, then looked down at the floor. "Uh, um, I-actually, you know, it's silly, nevermind."

"Oi'm sure i's not, m'lady Sofia," Violet said. "'S my job, aft' all, to get'cha wot you needs, 'tever it may be."

"You...sure? It really is pretty silly."

"Swear on me mum."

Sofia picked up the dressing gown. "Could... could someone make this all... sparkly? And how, uh, long might that take?"

Tilting her head to think, Violet answered, "Well, 'at really depends on in what way you mean, miss. If y' want embroid'ry, now _'at's_ gonna take a fine while. 'Specially if you want any specific designs."

Sofia shook her head no, "Doesn't need to be fancy. I'm, ah. Well, I'm trying to match this hat, right?" It took a moment of wandering, but Sofia found where she'd left the hat, and showed it to Violet.

"Oye, well if y'want it to do that swirly movin' thing, yer gonna need t' talk to Cedric, 'e's the only guy 'round here who c'n magic anything. An' even that's only some o' the time."

Again, Sofia shook her head. "I, I got _this_ from Mister Ceedric, actually, but no, I'm trying to, like- make a good impression, y'know? Show up for magic lessons ready to start, but also not like I just didn't even care?"

Violet pursed her mouth. "Mrm."

"So, is there-I don't know, maybe just sparkle powder that could be dusted on, or something?" Sofia's hopes were wearing thin, but then again, the palace had all _sorts_ of things she'd never have guessed existed - maybe they had some of the things she'd only dreamed of while in Dunwitty village.

Violet tilted her head the other way, and said, "Oh, aye, I c'n probably get that for ye, m'lady. Shouldn't be naught but a few mo! Well, except for the findin' of who t' do it, and the movin' it about..." As Violet continued, she stared off into space a bit and counted her fingers irregularly. Then she came back, "Well, at any rate, it should be back in a flash, miss. Not a literal flash, mind you, but so quick y' aint even notice it's gone."

Sofia smiled broadly as she handed the dressing gown to Violet and said, "Oh, _thank you_ , thank you so much."


	2. Tea For Too Many

Tea For Too Many Midquel

"Oooh, just make the tables _float_ , Cedric! No, wait, just call them _back,_ Cedric! What do you _mean,_ Cedric, that they're too far away? I don't have any concept of how magic _works,_ Cedric! Oooh, Cedric, you've done _exactly what we asked you to_ , but we're _still_ not happy, because we're _sooo_ royal! Well, those _royals_ can stick their tables right-"

"Mister Ceedric?" The young princess's voice startled Cedric out of his own little pity-party, enough to cause him to jump to his feet. On realizing who it was, however, Cedric settled back down-not quite sitting on the ground as he was before, but leaning against a tree. "Oh, you've come to berate me more, have you. It wasn't enough to just let me go back to the castle, you had to find me to rub salt in the wound, did you." Cedric crossed his arms and turned his head away in a pout.

Shaking her head, Sofia answered, "No, Mister Ceedric - "

"Seh-dric," Cedric interjected.

" - I was..." ...just wandering by on her way to her favorite spot, and found Cedric by chance. "...I was hoping to find you to thank you, actually." Sofia grinned up at the sorcerer.

"That's what I tho-wait, what now?" Cedric looked back at Sofia with a grimace, but also with an inquisitive raised eyebrow.

"I never really wanted the big fancy party with all of the shine and stuff anyway. And this gave me the chance to do what I wanted in the first place!"

Cedric knitted his eyebrows and nodded as he thought. Then, with a smile and a raised eyebrow, he said, "So, you could say... it wasn't quite your _cup of tea_?"

"Haha, yeah..!" Sofia chuckled, but she didn't really get the joke. "And besides, who could fault you for being _too good_ at magic? I'd _never_ have thought all those tables could just float away like that, they're so _heavy_ but you did it like it was nothing!"

Cedric made a noise in the back of his throat. "Well, they _wouldn't_ have -"

"- if not for the swans, that's _right_! Wow, the spell worked even when you were scared like that, that's amazing!" Sofia's smile grew a bit larger - somehow - and she bounced on her heels as she spoke.

Cedric turned away from Sofia and readjusted his crossed arms, but smiled-on the other side from Sofia. Couldn't let her see, definitely not. "I wasn't _scared_ , of course."

Sofia giggled and inched closer to Cedric. "So~ooo~"

Cedric's smile fell as he turned back to Sofia. "It's always something. What do you want _this_ time, Princess Sofia."

"While looking for _you_ , I was _also_ tying these ribbons - " Where did those even come from? Cedric could have sworn she wasn't carrying those yellow ribbons a moment ago... " - so my friends can find where my new tea party's going to be?"

"Yeees? I don't see where I come in to this."

"Weell... I'm trying to keep each one close enough to the other so no one gets lost, but I don't see anything around here to tie it on."

"There's a tree right here." Cedric motioned with his hand to the tree he had been leaning on. "Perfectly good, not rotten or anything."

"But Mister Ceedric, it hasn't got any branches, and I don't have anything long enough to go around the whole trunk!" Sofia pouted a bit and looked down at the ground for a moment, then raised her eyes back to Cedric's. "Buuut..."

"But what? Do you even have time to waste, I thought your guests were going to be here shortly."

"Buuut _you_ could point them in the right direction for me." Sofia smiled widely at Cedric. Almost a little eerily widely.

"I could do no such thing! I'm a very busy man, you know."

"Pleeease...?" Oh, there it is. The Face. The previous, precocious grin wasn't bad enough, but now Sofia had to use her big, sad eyes, and...

"Oh, all right." Cedric sighed. "You don't need to tie one of those on me, though. I happen to have a perfectly serviceable yellow bow already on." Grinning, Cedric tugged at the loops of the not-quite-bow-tie at his neck... and promptly stopped, for fear of pulling it undone.

Sofia tilted her head and frowned slightly. "But Mister Ceedric, you always wear that. And besides, it's not quiiite the same yellow as my ribbons."

Cedric sniffed and tilted his head up, eyes staying locked on the princess as he responded, "Yes, well, it's still quite yellow. Even if it's a bit dingy, that's not _my_ fault."

Sofia shook her head. "But since you always wear it, my guests won't know it's one of _my_ ribbons, pointing the way. I really need you to use one of these for me."

"Can't I just point them in the right direction?"

"Well, that's not very festive, now, is iiit?"

"Now why would _I_ care about being ' _festive'_?"

Sofia didn't answer. She just... used... the _eyes_ again.

"Fine! Fine, you win. Give it here." Sofia stepped forward to tie a ribbon around Cedric's wrist, but he grabbed it from her and tried to do it himself-and mumbling the entire time, of course. Upon realizing it was rather difficult to tie something around one's own wrist, given that one hand was definitely out of commission for such, he gave up and tied it around his head instead. "Happy?" he snapped at Sofia.

"Very~!" she answered in a sing-song tone, and started to skip off. "Thaaank you Mister Ceedric!"

"It's 'Cedric!'"


End file.
